The winner of Pop Idol gets knocked off number one… by the runner-up. Yes, roll your eyes, it’s an understandable reaction; but you’d better get used to this level of domination.
Unchained Melody, by Gareth Gates (his 1st of four #1s)
4 weeks, from 24th March – 21st April 2002
Gareth Gates had been the frontrunner for much of the first series of Pop Idol, and was the bookies’ favourite going into the final. But I’d say that the public chose the right winner on the night. Will Young has a memorable voice, one you can pick out of a crowd. Gates has the voice of a decent-enough pub karaoke singer.
Luckily for him, his debut single was ripped right from Simon Cowell’s karaoke playbook. ‘Unchained Melody’ is either an inspired choice – it had worked for Robson & Jerome, and if it ain’t broke – or the most mind-numbingly unimaginative one. Why did we need yet another cover of it, the third one to top the charts in less than twelve years? At least Will Young was given a couple of ‘originals’, even if they were very dull. Although if one thing’s clear after the age of X-Factor, it’s that Simon Cowell has a very limited, if indeed any, imagination.
At least the song is shuffled around a little, starting with the lonely rivers bit. It means it does catch the ears, at first. But as soon as the tune comes in properly, it dissolves into mush. Is this better or worse than the R&J version? Or is that question moot as long as you can put on the Righteous Brothers instead? There was of course another number one version, Jimmy Young’s 1955 hit, which was literally the melody from the movie ‘Unchained’. This record of four different chart-topping versions of a song still stands, though it has since been matched by two other tunes.
I will have to admit that this record, when I was sixteen, was the first time I had really encountered ‘Unchained Melody’. I’m sure I already knew it, but the radio airplay of this version really hammered the song home. And I did quite like this version… For a week or two, at most, I assure you.
What’s interesting to see is that, in truth, and unlike later singing contest series, it didn’t matter whether Gareth Gates or Will Young won the final. They both enjoyed the success of winners, matching one another hit for hit, at least for the first year or two of their careers. Gates was only seventeen when he made the final, and he had the now contractually obliged reality TV sob-story: a stammer that only went away when he sang. Though I don’t want to belittle a genuine affliction, it does amuse me that his oblivious parents gave him the possibly the worst name ever given to someone with a stammer.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
As I was very rarely listening to much of the charts by 2002 I’d never heard this before until just now, although I was aware of it. Some credit is due for a gentle tweaking with the arrangement, beginning with the bridge, and I will concede that Gareth made a decent fist of it. However, having been force-fed the Righteous Brothers’ reissue to excess a few years before that (partly my fault as a mobile DJ at the time, I concede), part of me would cross the road to avoid hearing the song again, the Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan version excepted.
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Not heard it in 23 years. It’s def better than Robson Jerome’s karaoke/backing singers swamped effort, and it’s hard to dislike young Gareth, it’s a bit like kicking a puppy if you even try, so – and it’s not a high bar – I rate this as the second-best number one version behind the still-definitive version that is really a solo record under the Righteous Brothers name. Bobby Hatfield will never be bettered. I saw Gareth a few years later in Joseph & His Technicolour Coat after the hits had dried up. He was OK but I would rather listen to this than sit through Joseph again….
Even all these years later, I can’t bring myself to listen to any of these talent-show winner number ones.
Maolsheachlann
The song is great…and he does a great job on this I will have to admit.